Breaking down Monday’s big trade

SEATTLE, WA – JULY 18: Tamera Young

Every week, The Summitt staff takes a few minutes to talk about the latest happenings from around the WNBA. Below, you’ll find the transcript of our discussion, which took place in our Slack room this afternoon.

Note: This conversation happened before the Elena Delle Donne injury news broke. Stay with the Summitt for more updates there.

Howard Megdal: Hello and welcome to this week’s Summitt Summit! So much to get to as we enter August. The place I’d love to start is the big trade last night, just before the deadline. Imani Boyette, Tamera Young and second round pick to Atlanta for Jordan Hooper and a first. I broke down what I think this means for both teams last night, but Ari, you were just with the Dream. What did you see out of them, how close to legit playoff contention do you think they are?

Arielle Chambers: They’re right on the border. It’ll be interesting to see how they work with the new additions. I’m glad they have some more height in the post to help Elizabeth. Imani will be a great contribution to protecting the rim

And to add Ty, they’re getting someone who can get a shot up. So I think this is a wonderful move by Coop

She can give a spark off the bench and veteran experience

Howard: Totally agree. It feels like they managed to improve rebounding and even rim protection, where they already excelled, without sacrificing identity. Do you think this Dream team considers itself a contender?

Arielle:They definitely see it as an end goal. Completely. They seem to be hungry for a long playoff run, to be honest

I think it’s a team that’s going to shock the league with a playoff run. Highly athletic. If they can just improve offensively, they’ll do just fine

Howard: That’s a great point- the achilles heel is their tenth overall offensive efficiency rating

Arielle: Getting more looks to Elizabeth inside will help, too.

I think Imani and Tamera are great additions to help them achieve that goal

Speaking candidly, it just seems like a more well-rounded team this year-without Angel

Howard: Totally agree. And for Chicago, some needed roster balancing. But I referenced it briefly in the piece- the big loser of the trade is Seattle, which is tied for the eighth spot. GM Alisha Valvanis reiterated in no uncertain terms to us last week that anything short of the playoffs is a failure. You saw both the Storm and the current seven seed, the Dallas Wings, up close Erica. What do you make of the current Storm?

Erica Ayala: The Storm win against Dallas was a good indication of what the team can be. However, the Seattle Storm team has been inconsistent.

Offensive records were set left and right on Friday, a good sign for the Storm. They were also able to buckle down defensively to keep the Wings at bay. If this is how the Storm will play for the remainder of the season, then I can see them making the playoffs.